


The Wrath of Abuela

by scarletmanuka



Category: 9-1-1 (TV)
Genre: Angry Grandmother, F/M, Getting Together, Happy Ending, Isabel Diaz is a National Treasure, M/M, Oblivious Eddie Diaz (9-1-1 TV), Pining Evan "Buck" Buckley, Revelations
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-02-26
Updated: 2021-02-26
Packaged: 2021-03-17 07:21:36
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,220
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29713659
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/scarletmanuka/pseuds/scarletmanuka
Summary: Whilst on his second date with Ana, Eddie's abuela sees them and confronts Eddie, thinking he's stepping out on Buck.
Relationships: Eddie Diaz/Ana Flores (9-1-1 TV), Evan "Buck" Buckley/Eddie Diaz
Comments: 90
Kudos: 861





	The Wrath of Abuela

**Author's Note:**

> Please note: dialogue in italics indicates dialogue spoken in Spanish. My pet hate is using Google translate to badly translate my dialogue and then pasting the translations in the end notes and making everyone scroll up and down and up and down, over and over, until you just give up.

Eddie thanked the waitress and took a seat at the table in the garden section of the small cafe where he was meeting Ana. His palms were only slightly sweaty - he was much less nervous about the second date than he was about the first. At least this time around he wasn’t coming off the shift from hell and was reasonably rested. Buck was looking after Christopher and they were going to be making the chocolate mousse cake that Abuela especially loved to take for dessert tonight for their regular Sunday dinner. The first time that Buck had brought it, Eddie was sure that Abuela was going to adopt him officially on the spot, even though she already treated him like family.

Life was finally settling down into some kind of rhythm. The ache in his heart from Shannon’s passing was easing, Christopher was happy, the tension that had lingered between himself and Buck after the whole lawsuit and street fighting ordeal was gone, and Eddie was finally allowing himself to move on. He was _happy,_ and it felt good. He had everything he needed - a wonderful family, a best friend like he’d never had before, and a supportive network of friends and colleagues who were just as close as family. He was healing, but most importantly, Christopher was healing too. No matter what direction his own personal life took, whether it be dating Ana, or staying single, his son’s happiness would always be Eddie’s top priority. And it was so _good_ to see Christopher happy.

He’d been so worried about Christopher after all that he’d been through. To lose his mother and be caught up in a tsunami as well as seeing one of his favourite people in the world struggle after almost dying when the bomb went off in the ladder truck, well, Eddie was a little surprised at how well Christopher _was_ coping. It had been tough at the beginning, especially when Buck hadn’t been allowed to see them during his legal action, but it had gotten easier when the two of them had begun to face their fears together. Recently, Buck had even convinced Christopher to start surfing with him and apart from one or two moments where they’d suffered from flashbacks, they were both doing much better. 

It had helped Eddie too, having Buck to lean on. He’d gone it alone for so long, even when Shannon had briefly returned and it was nice to have someone he could depend on to help out. Carla was wonderful and as much as they loved her, at the end of the day, she was still being paid to help them. Buck did it out of love and he genuinely enjoyed spending time with them. He helped Christopher with his homework, came round for regular movie nights, would stay over and cook them breakfast, and picked Christopher up from school or took him to appointments if Eddie was busy picking up extra shifts. That even extended to looking after Christopher for the morning so Eddie could go on a date, even when he was already going to be spending the afternoon and evening with them at Abuela's for dinner. He didn't seem to mind giving up his entire days off to spend with one or both of the Diaz boys.

Before he could start yet another mental list of all the things that he’d never be able to repay his best friend for, Ana arrived. She looked gorgeous in a pale yellow summer dress with spaghetti straps and her hair tumbling over her bare shoulders. He beamed at her and rose, greeting her with a kiss to the cheek before holding her chair for her. “Thank you, Edmundo,” she said in her throaty voice.

“You look lovely,” he told her as he sat.

She smiled. “You look rather handsome yourself.”

Their waitress returned, handing them menus before informing them of their brunch specials. They thanked her and then spent a quiet minute or two perusing the menu. “What are you thinking?” Eddie asked, when the silence had started to grow a tad uncomfortable. 

“I’m not sure,” Ana said. “They don’t have the best selection here.”

Eddie glanced down at the menu that he’d thought was rather extensive. They did everything from pancakes to waffles, a full cooked English breakfast or simple scrambled eggs on toast, to muesli and yoghurt or protein shakes. “You can never really go wrong with pancakes,” Eddie joked, even though he’d already decided against getting them since no one ever made them as good as Buck did.

Ana wrinkled her nose. “I think I’m a little too grown up for pancakes, don’t you think?”

Eddie frowned. “I wasn’t aware that pancakes had an age limit,” he commented quite seriously.

She laughed and reached across and squeezed his hand. “You’re so funny! Everyone knows that pancakes are for children.”

Another waitress was passing their table with two plates of pancakes stacked high which she deposited in front of two men. Eddie tilted his head in their direction. “I guess no one told them.”

She gave them a slightly derisive look. “I’ll correct that to children or adults with the mentality of children.”

Eddie wanted to argue that pancakes could - and were - enjoyed by people of all ages but it felt like too trivial a subject to argue over when they were supposed to be on a date. It was obviously just one of those things that Ana had an issue with, a little like how Eddie had an issue with home AI systems. He wasn’t even going to order the damn pancakes so he let the matter drop, asking about her new job instead.

They placed their orders (bacon and eggs for Eddie, avocado toast for Ana) and then enjoyed their coffee while they waited. “I must say, I’m really impressed, Eddie, that you’re putting yourself out there again,” Ana said, giving him a warm smile. “It must have been a difficult decision to make to start dating again after having your heart broken not once by twice.”

He wasn’t sure what that meant. “What do you mean?”

She picked up his hand and gave his knuckles a soft kiss before holding it gently in her own hands. “It’s just, you mentioned last time that you and your wife had been estranged for many years before her death. Losing her couldn’t have been easy and then to suffer another breakup so soon afterwards would be enough to put anyone else off dating for life. You’re very brave.”

“Um…”

“How is Christopher taking it?” she breezed on, oblivious to his confusion. “Does he have any issues with you dating again?”

“I’ve talked with him in general about it,” Eddie said, “but to be honest, I haven’t told him I’m seeing you yet.”

She nodded. “That’s smart. There’s no point in telling him just yet, it gives us time to discover what we mean to one another first. Is he with a babysitter today?”

Eddie shook his head and said with a smile, “No, he’s spending the morning with his Buck.”

She looked a little taken aback. “Oh, I didn't realise they were so close.”

“How so? There’s no one I trust more with Christopher than Buck.”

She seemed to collect herself and offered him a smile. “I’m glad you managed to figure out some sort of arrangement then so they can still see each other.”

Now he was confused again. “Why wouldn't they see each other?”

“Well, some people wouldn’t feel comfortable having their kids spend so much time with someone after having gone through all of that. Did you have to get the courts involved in the custody agreement or did you sort it yourselves?”

He was about to tell her that they must have gotten their wires crossed at some point when he heard his voice being called from across the cafe. He recognised it at once as his abuela’s - and she sounded _pissed._

 _“Edmundo Hernandez Alejandro Diaz! How_ **_dare_ ** _you?”_ she shouted in Spanish as she pushed through the tables and chairs, glaring daggers at him.

“Abuela?” he asked, starting to rise from his chair but falling down heavily as she began to beat him around the head and shoulders with her handbag.

 _“Of all the things I expected to see today, it was not you here with some_ **_hussy._ ** _I have never been more ashamed in my life! If your abuelo was alive today he would be shocked at your behaviour! I thought you had been raised better than this, I thought you were more respectful. Shame on you, Edmundo, shame on you!”_

Eddie raised his arms to fend off the more brutal impacts from her handbag (what the hell was she carrying in there? Bricks?) and tried to calm her down. _“Abuela, please, I don’t know what you’re upset about!”_

 _“The last person you should be worried about upsetting is me! I cannot believe you have the gall to sit here with this...puta, to sit in broad daylight and act like you don’t have a care in the world while your love is nowhere to be seen!”_ _  
_

_"Abuela!”_ he said, so shocked at the way she was insulting Ana that he completely failed to protect himself from her next attack. His head snapped back and he saw stars. _“Would you stop hitting me and explain what the hell you’re talking about! And please, refrain from insulting my date, who understands every word that you’re saying!”_

Abuela turned her glare on Ana, who shrank in her seat. _“I am glad that this homewrecker can understand me! She deserves to know what her actions are doing to what I believed was a happy family.”_

 _“You need to calm down, Abuela and explain yourself,”_ Eddie told her, trying to sound calm himself so he could placate her.

“Is everything alright here?” their waitress asked, coming up behind them with two plates balanced in her hands. 

“I’m sorry, there’s just been a misunderstanding,” Eddie said, trying to diffuse the situation. “My abuela was just leaving.”

“I most certainly am not!” she asserted. “I am not leaving until you explain yourself, Edmundo!”

“I would explain if I knew what the hell had upset you so much!” he cried, trying not to shout but feeling too exasperated to manage it.

“Trust us, we want to know too,” said once of the men from the table next to them, who had abandoned their pancakes and were watching the drama unfold avidly. 

“I would like to know as well,” Ana said, starting to get angry. She folded her arms across her chest and raised an expectant brow at Eddie.

“Ana, I swear, I have no idea what my abuela thinks it is that I’ve done.”

“What you’ve done?” Abuela repeated. “You don't know what it is that you’ve done, Edmundo Diaz?” Her eyes narrowed. “At this very moment, your son is in the kitchen of your home, making our favourite dessert to bring to dinner tonight.”

Eddie furrowed his brows. “Yes, and?”

“I know this,” Abuela said slowly, like Eddie was dumb, “because Buck phoned me to ask if he needed to bring cream or if I had some.”

“I _told_ him to check with you,” Eddie said, getting exasperated himself now. “I still don’t have any idea of why this is so upsetting to you and why you felt the need to not only interrupt my date but to do your best to give me a concussion as well!”

“Don’t you take that tone with me, young man!” she snapped, and Eddie bowed his head contritely. “If it is not _obvious,_ I am upset because after I assured Buck that I would get the cream when I was out to do my grocery shop, I came upon my nieto stepping out on him with this cheap looking puta!”

“I swear, Abuela, if you insult Ana one more - wait, what? Hang on a second, you think I’m cheating on _Buck?_ With Ana?”

“If you are here on a date with her, then I _know_ you are cheating on him because he is at home with your son!”

“What is she saying?” Ana demanded. “Are you still seeing Buck?”

Eddie ran a hand through his hair in frustration. “What do you mean, _still_ seeing Buck? I’m not seeing Buck, I have never been together with Buck - we’re best friends, that is all!”

Abuela scoffed. “It’s all well and good to say that in this moment when you’re trying to save your skin, but history doesn't lie.”

 _“What history?”_ Eddie all but screamed, wondering when the hell he’d fallen into some crazy alternative dimension. 

“You honestly believe that you’re not in a relationship with that boy?” Abuela said, her eyes narrowing as she held up a hand and began to tick off on her fingers. “You spend almost every spare moment of your time with him, _after_ you’ve spent every moment of your working day with him. You are incapable of having a conversation without mentioning him in every second sentence. He comes to family dinner every Sunday. He is the one who picks you up from the hospital when you have been injured at work and he then stays with you when you cannot be left alone. You both look at each other like you would move the very heavens for one another.”

“He’s your son’s emergency contact at school,” Ana added, and then said, “Also, he’s the person that Christopher never stops talking about.”

“He makes you my special soup when you or Christopher are sick.,” Abuela continued. “Last week when I came over to watch Christopher and did a load of washing, almost a third of the clothing belonged to him. He has a toothbrush in your bathroom. He does your grocery shopping. He knows your complete medical history and your social security number.”

“He built your son a skateboard,” Ana said.

“Hey, I helped!” Eddie protested.

“When I call you, he answers more often than you do,” Abuela went on. “You and Christopher went on a mini-vacation with him just before the COVID lockdown.”

“We went _camping!”_

“The question is, Edmundo,” Abuela said, giving him a flinty look, “if you’re not dating him -”

“Then why the hell aren’t you?” Ana finished for her.

The two women exchanged a look and in that moment Eddie knew that they had formed a truce and were now ganging up on him. He didn't think he stood a chance against the both of them.

“Let me get this straight,” he said, taking a deep breath. “Abuela, you think that I’ve been dating Buck for what? Months now?”

She snorted. “Years, Edmundo. _Years.”_

“And you -” He pointed to Ana, putting it altogether in his head - ”think that I _was_ dating Buck and that we broke up, which is why you think it was courageous to get back into dating after having my heart broken.”

She rolled her eyes. “It appears I was wrong - you never actually broke up.”

“We were never dating!” he cried.

“Are you sure about that?” she asked, a challenge in her eyes.

“Edmundo, I love you,” Abuela said, reaching up and cupping his jaw, “but if you do not know that you and Buck belong together, then you are quite possibly the dumbest man that I have ever met.”

“But, he’s a man,” he said quietly, not quite able to look her in the eyes.

“And? Can you honestly tell me that you are not happy when you are with him?”

Eddie didn't even have to think about it. He knew that Buck was the sunshine to his gloomy days, the one who could make him laugh, the one who understood him more than anyone ever had, his closest friend in the entire world. He had just never thought about the possibility of _more_ with Buck. Now that it had been pointed out to him, he couldn’t think of anything else. “You know I can’t dispute that,” he replied.

“Then why will you not allow yourself to have _every_ happiness?” she asked. 

“Because he doesn’t think of me that way,” he whispered.

“Do _not_ make me hit you with my handbag again,” she snapped, exasperated. “That boy loves you with the whole of his heart, which is bigger than anyone else’s I know.”

“He does?”

“He does.” She patted his cheek lightly and stepped back. “Now get your butt out of here and go to where you need to be. To where your heart has _always_ been.”

He looked over at Ana, worried at how angry she would be by his revelation but she just shook her head and waved him off. “Go, Eddie.”

“I’m sorry,” he told her, honestly.

“So am I. Now go and get your man.”

He nodded, bent over to give his abuela a kiss on the cheek and then he was hurrying through the cafe, slapping a bill on the counter as he passed. His mind was racing with all of the new information but funnily enough, his heart was beating steadily, as if to say _‘are you only just catching up now?”_

He lost track of how many traffic laws he broke as he raced home, but a peace had settled over him and he found that he simply didn’t care. If he’d been pulled over by a traffic cop, that excuse wouldn’t have flown but luck was on his side and he reached his driveway without seeing a single black and white. 

During the drive, he’d fully accepted that he was in love with Buck, and it was like the final piece of a puzzle, clicking into place. He’d never been able to imagine a life without Buck in it and now he couldn’t imagine a life without Buck _by his side._ The house smelled heavenly of chocolate when he entered and Eddie threw his keys on the hall table and all but sprinted down the hall to the kitchen, bursting in on a domestic scene that he’d seen many, many times before.

Buck and Christopher were sitting together at the table, the air filled with their laughter, smiles on their faces, and remnants of chocolate mousse frosting on their mouths as they decorated their cake. Sparkling blue eyes flicked up to meet his as Eddie barged into the kitchen, instantly darkening in worry at his hasty entrance. Before Buck could even ask what was wrong, Eddie had pulled him from his seat and was kissing him soundly, tasting chocolate, and Buck, and home.

“What was that for?” Buck asked breathlessly as they broke apart.

“Because today it was pointed out that where I needed to be was right here, with you and Chris.”

At the mention of his name, both Eddie and Buck turned to look at the boy. Christopher was beaming up at them, a dollop of chocolate frosting on the tip of his nose. “Does this mean that you two are _finally_ boyfriends?” he asked.

Eddie grinned at Buck and reached over to link their hands together. “I hope so.”

“Oh, as if you could get rid of me now, Diaz,” Buck retorted with a grin.

Eddie leaned in and kissed him again and murmured against his lips, “I am never letting you go.”

And he didn’t. 


End file.
